KHN creating $1.7M neuro-therapy center

Kettering Health Network is bringing a neurological therapy center to the region, with the $1.7 million project expected to open early next year.

The Neuro Rehab and Balance Center will open at Yankee Medical Center, located near the campus of Southview Medical Center in Centerville. The 15,000-square-foot center, located on the second floor of the building, will cost up to $1.2 million to build out. Kettering will spend an additional $500,000 on new equipment, including rehabilitation tools, bars and suspension equipment. The new center will employ 15 — a mixture of current and future employees — that will create an equal number of openings throughout the network.

Kettering is creating the center because of a growing demand for neurological rehabilitation and diagnoses. Currently, Kettering treats patients at all of its area hospitals and some independent offices, but has no central location with all types of neurological treatment.

Beavercreek-based Synergy Building Systems is building the neurological center and will put in new walls, rooms and therapy stations, said Jerad Barnett, president of Beavercreek-based Mills-Morgan Development Co./Synergy Building Systems. The ceiling will be equipped with special suspension equipment that will drop down and move along a track to rehabilitate patients who have trouble with balance, Barnett said.

The center will treat people from ages 18 to 85 who have neurological disorders, including cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and those who have suffered strokes, and have balance and dizziness issues. The center will include speech therapy, occupational therapy, balance therapy and life therapy, which allows patients to work on tasks required for everyday life.

Patients will funnel to the center through physician referrals or by coming to the center directly. Patients will be treated or diagnosed throughout a broad range of the course of their disease, meaning they could be diagnosed at the center or be in their 40th year of therapy there. The center will have a group of medical directors on staff to supervise, treat and diagnose patients throughout the rehabilitation process.

Nancy Robie, director of business development for Grandview Medical Center — which aided in the center’s development — said the neuro center will serve as the hub for a number of neurological services throughout Kettering Health Network. Most network services are set up as hub and spokes, meaning there is a centralized headquarters and several offices throughout the region. With neurology, however, Kettering had the spokes but needed the hub.

“We put our full force behind it,” Robie said. “We realized this was a need in the community, and we knew we had to act fast.”

Dr, James Beegan, medical director at the new center, said the need in the community is great, though he did not have estimates as to how many people are affected by neurological disorders. Beegan said although Dayton has several neurological centers dedicated to different types of therapy or that work on one or several disorders, nothing as comprehensive as the new center exists in the region.

Kurt Jackson, neurology coordinator for the department of physical therapy at the University of Dayton, agreed with that assessment.

“There currently isn’t anything of this type in the community,” he said, adding that he also didn’t know how many people in the community suffer from such disorders. However, Jackson said the need will only become greater as the population ages.

“The instances of stroke and Parkinson’s are anticipated to rise with that,” Jackson said. “Because of that, there’s a need for facilities that can provide the comprehensive care and ongoing care, because that’s what these diseases require.”